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I was just returning some DVDs back to Hollywood Video when a notion just struck me out of the clear blue -
Why couldn't there be a MUSIC rental chain?
Think about it. You go in there with a hankering for, oh, Led Zeppelin and Dire Straits. You look through the CD inventory, pick yourself out CDs of "Brothers in Arms" and "In Through the Out Door", go up to the counter, pay $4.00 and take them home to listen to them. The CDs are due back in 2 days, but that gives you plenty of time to burn them anyway.
It works out well enough for the movie industry. I can't begin to tell you how long I've rented DVDs, taken them home and recorded them onto either a blank DVD or a VHS cassette. Hollywood Video, Blockbuster Video, they all know it happens and yet they're all still in business after all these years.
I'd be willing to bet if the RIAA got behind this and opened up music rental chains across the U.S., it'd eliminate a lot of file swapping over the internet...sales wouldn't take any bigger hit then they already have, and at least the RIAA would be making $4 a pop every time some teenage girl checks out Hillary Duff's new CD...over and over...
Relegate selling CDs to the same file as selling DVDs and whatnot; I don't see any downslide to this sort of set-up at all, and benefits all ways around.
How about anyone else? Anybody else think this might work, or is there some logic I've overlooked that would put the kabosh on it immediately?
Why couldn't there be a MUSIC rental chain?
Think about it. You go in there with a hankering for, oh, Led Zeppelin and Dire Straits. You look through the CD inventory, pick yourself out CDs of "Brothers in Arms" and "In Through the Out Door", go up to the counter, pay $4.00 and take them home to listen to them. The CDs are due back in 2 days, but that gives you plenty of time to burn them anyway.
It works out well enough for the movie industry. I can't begin to tell you how long I've rented DVDs, taken them home and recorded them onto either a blank DVD or a VHS cassette. Hollywood Video, Blockbuster Video, they all know it happens and yet they're all still in business after all these years.
I'd be willing to bet if the RIAA got behind this and opened up music rental chains across the U.S., it'd eliminate a lot of file swapping over the internet...sales wouldn't take any bigger hit then they already have, and at least the RIAA would be making $4 a pop every time some teenage girl checks out Hillary Duff's new CD...over and over...
Relegate selling CDs to the same file as selling DVDs and whatnot; I don't see any downslide to this sort of set-up at all, and benefits all ways around.
How about anyone else? Anybody else think this might work, or is there some logic I've overlooked that would put the kabosh on it immediately?
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